Constant threats from Mother Nature
Weeds, insects and diseases can potentially wipe out entire rice fields.
Bacterial leaf blight (BLB)
A common disease, especially during the rainy season, and against which there is presently no chemical cure.
- Bayer was the first to introduce a hybrid in Asia with in-built tolerance to BLB.
- Today, this trait is being progressively incorporated into all Arize hybrids to protect against this threat during the wet months.
Brown plant hopper (BPH)
This migratory pest is resistant to most plant protection products and can induce severe yield losses by sucking the sap of rice plants and introducing viruses that cause serious setbacks to harvests.
- Bayer is soon to launch a new high-yielding hybrid with good tolerance to BPH. This will also ensure that farmers have a first line of defense against this unpredictable pest.
Rice blast
This fungus is capable of attacking the leaves, stems, and panicles of rice plants throughout the rice-growing season.
- Bayer has started to work on various genetic sources of tolerance to blast and will be able, in the coming years, to introduce some hybrids with a high tolerance to this virulent disease.
Abiotic stress
Excessive salinity, irregular water supply and high temperatures and can be serious threats to rice production.
- Bayer in the near future will introduce hybrids that can grow in levels of salinity that are double the current salinity-tolerant hybrids to date, hybrids that can tolerate up to two weeks of submergence and is working to find new parental lines which are more tolerant to extreme temperature.
We face problems from blast, water
[management] and Brown plant hopper (BPH)…
Bacterial leaf blight (BLB) is also seen.
Dindayal Hanumantha, Farmer, Chhattisgarh, India